


Washed Away

by Kispexi2



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-07-16
Updated: 2008-07-16
Packaged: 2017-10-08 08:07:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/74484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kispexi2/pseuds/Kispexi2





	Washed Away

"OUT!" Sanzo bellows for what he hopes will be the last time and finally, at long frigging last, Goku slinks out of the room. If he had a tail, it'd be between his legs right now. Goddamn Goku.

The door closes with a petulant bang but after that there's nothing but silence - pure, clean silence, broken only by the smallest gurgle from elderly plumbing and the occasional _plip!_ of water dripping into water.

Sanzo sheds his clothes and stretches. Rolls his shoulders and lets his head loll back. Every muscle complains loudly, so he does it again. Just to show his body who's boss.

The bathroom is mostly white, almost entirely tiled. It's like a hospital. Or a morgue, Sanzo thinks grimly, but when he steps into the bath, it's anything but cold.

"Shit!" he hisses, skin jerking in alarmed response to the scalding water, but now he's in it, he can't be assed to get out again. And it's not _that_ hot anyway. Not really. Just hotter than he's used to, than he'd like. He bends and kneels down, letting the water lap his thighs, his balls, his butt. Sucking his teeth, he gingerly lowers himself further still, straightening his legs out in front of him until he's sitting, the water waist deep.

His skin is turning red. There's a clear line around his middle where cold white skin meets sweltering crimson. Meanwhile, the old scars remain stubbornly silver. No change there.

He lies back, expecting it to be more uncomfortable than it is. _Hmmph_. He must be getting used to the warmth because it doesn't hurt any more. It's still oppressive, like something forcing itself on him, trying to make him yield, but there's no pain.

He closes his eyes. Listens to the silence. Feels the water shift about him, moulding itself to his contours in an indifferent and pleasantly undemanding embrace.

An ache buried under his scapula seems to take a deep breath, then sighs itself away into nothingness, leaving his shoulders loose and fluid. Lower down, the tightness in his back eases and turns elastic.

Slowly, slowly, the outside world begins to drift away, washed to the far shores of his consciousness by the gentle ebb and flow of the water, the slow rise and fall of his chest. Nothing else matters. _Nothing_ matters - not the others, not the journey ... not even his Master's sutra -

He sits bolt upright again so suddenly that water sloshes over the sides of the bath and runs in frantic, panicked rivulets across the floor. The room is full of steam so dense he can scarcely see his reflection in the mirror when he stands.

Snatching up a towel, he scrubs furiously at his treacherous body, stinging his skin back into nervous life and flings the windows open wide, shivering gratefully in the rush of cold mountain air that raises goosebumps all over his arms and back.

Goddamn water. It nearly dissolved him.

He yanks the bath plug out with a flourish and a bitter snort of triumph.

The water burbles back at him and drains leisurely away, the whorl around the plug-hole like a sly, knowing eye winking back at him slyly, over its shoulder.

Empty, the bath looks like a coffin.

_Nearly had you, Genjyo Sanzo. Next time ..._

There won't be a next time, Sanzo vows. Because if Goku is ever stupid enough to run him another bath that hot, he'll kill him.


End file.
